The Morphology Core of Kresge Hearing Research Institute provides morphological processing and assessments for the entire Program Project. The Core will handle the processing and analysis of tissues with a variety of morphological methods. The major part of the work will be performed by two full time research assistants, Peter A. Finger and Annapurna Ramakrishnan. Planning and supervision of the work, quality control and assessments of the results will be performed by Dr. Raphael. Drs. Altschuler and Hawkins will be available as consultants. Dr. Raphael and Dr. Middlebrooks will share the responsibility for coordinating the distribution of the load of work between the Core and the PIs on the sub- projects. All methods proposed for use by the Core are already in routine use in our laboratory. Publication for previous years include extensive use of the majority of these methods. Close working relationship exist between the PIs on the different projects and between the PI on the Core and the technical assistants. To further promote efficient and successful Core operation, frequent meetings will be set between the Core PI and the other PIs, to discuss progress and plan next steps in each of the specific aims. Dr. Raphael will also be involved in preparing the data for presentation in meetings or peer reviewed papers.